Performance of initial full-length RHIC dipoles

The successful performance of four full-length research and development (R&D) dipole magnets for the proposed Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is reported. A review is given of the dipole design, and the performance of initial prototypes is recounted. These magnets were built by a cooperative arrangement between Brookhaven National Laboratory and an industrial vendor in West Germany. The magnets reached a quench plateau of approximately 4.5 T with very reasonable ´training´. Quench data are presented along with the results of field-quality measurements. Measured field multipoles are considered to be quite acceptable for this series of R&D magnets.